Amusement apparatus



T. D. HOOPER, JR. AMUSEMENT APPARATUS.

* APPLICATION FILED MAY l. 1920. 1,360,953. Patented Nov. 30, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

T. D. HOOPER, In.

AMUSEMENT APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY I, 19201 Patented Nov. 30, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

THOMAS HOOPER, JR., 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

AMU'SEMENT APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 30, 1920.

Application filed May 1, 1920. Serial No. 378,297.

1o all whom t 'may concern.'

'Be it known that I, Trrotnis D. HoorER,

I a citizen of the United States, residin Vat the city of Philadelphia,county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented acertain new and useful Improved yAmuse ient Apparatus, of which thefollowingis @specification Y The present invention has relation to and.is an improvement upon the apparatus set forth Letters Patent Number1,101,630 granted to me J une 30, 1914. According to the construction ofparts as shown and described in said patent it is necessary to employ adouble set of traction rails whichadds materially to the erection andmaintenance of the-apparatus. I have discovered that a conventionalscenic railway may be Areadily convertedV into a structure embodyingfeatures of the present invention by making use ofthe single set oftracks found thereon and connecting therewith a series of loops and:re-arranging the wheels of the' trucks as found upon a conventionalscenic railway car sov that the flanges of the wheels of one truck trackupon the outer edges of the single line of rails and the iianges of thewheels of the other truck track upon the innerl edges of said rails. Theeifect of this is to render any scenic railway readily adaptable forconversion into a novel amusement apparatus at comparatively little costand practically no added maintenance cost. I have also discovered thatwhen a car-body is reversing a loop that there is a tendency of the carto tilt and in the present instance I have provided means upon both thecar and adjacent a loop for reducing such tilting to a minimum. Y

rFhe invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described andinally claimed.

The nature, characteristic features and scope of the invention will bemore fully understood from the following description taken in connectionwith the accompanying f drawings forming part hereof, and in whichFigure 1,'is a view in cross-section of an incline of a scenic railwayof the present invention taken at one of the loops thereof, Fig. 2, is afragmentary view, in plan, of an incline including loops, the supportingstructure being omitted for the sake of clearness, and

Fig. 3, is a view in plan of a car illustrating the non-tilting deviceas applied thereto.

For the purpose of illustrating my invention I have shown in theaccompanying drawings one form thereof which is at present preferred byme, since the same has been found in practice to give satisfactory andreliable results, although it is to be understood that the variousinstrumentalities of which my invention consists can be variouslyarranged and organized and that my invention is not limited totheprecise arrangement and organiz/.ation of the instrumentalities asherein shown and described.A

In the drawings a scenic railway is shown for illustrative purposesalthough Vobviously the present idea may be readily embodied in the formof a toy. .Since the construction of scenic railways is well understoodin the art I have shown no more thereof in the drawings than isnecessary to an understanding of the present invention. 10 designatescross-ties and 11 bucks of an incline of a conventional scenic railway.12 designates the conventional single set of rails as mounted upon thecross-ties 10. At an appropriate place or places along the incline thecross-ties are extended beyond the line of the track as at l0 upon whicha loop 13 is constructed. In practice such loops are positioned in pairsone upon each side of the main line of rails although this is notessential. It however provides for the comfort of the patrons of ascenic railway as will hereinafter be described. Adapted for travel overan incline, .under the influence of gravity, are cars 14 cach providedwith a pair of trucks l5 having` swiveled relation as at 16 with a. car.Each truck is usually equipped with four wheels and the flanges thereofare similarly positioned as shown in my patent aforesaid. By the presentinvention, however, I reverse the wheels of one truck so that instead ofthe flanges thereof engaging the outside edges of the rails they engagethe inner edges of the rails. By this arrangement I am enabled to obtaina reversal of car-body at a loop to produce a sensation both novel andexhilarating inv its effect. This reversal of car-body is made possiblefor the following reason :-For the sake of illustration, let it beassumed that the flanges of wheels of the truck at the front of a cartrack upon the outside edges of the rails of an incline and that theflanges of the wheels of the rear truck track upon the inside edges ofthe rails and let it be further assumed that such front truck is totalre the first loop. This arrangement ofV parts is shown in Fig. 2. Itwill be observed that the front truck in takingvthe loop Vhas a greaterdistance to travel than does the rear truck passing along the Vmain lineof the'rails so that the rear truck overtakes the front truck andy"tempoarily becomes the :leading truck. By the exchange of places .thebody of the car, because of its swivel'ed connections with said trucks,has been shifted end for endy so that the passengers therein arenow'seated backward. To promote the comfort of the occupants of the car,it is desirable to immediately re-shift the car-body and preferably uponthe opposite sidev of the main rails so that said passengers Y shall notbe subjected'to dizziness. The car' j isre-shifted byreason of anotherloop and it will be observed that the wheels of the rear ytruck (now theleading` truck) follow the rails of the loop while the wheels of therear truck (now the trailer) follow the main line ofrails so that theear is caused to sume its former position, that ispwith the vpassengersse'atedforward.

In order to prevent tilting kof a car during the above describedshiftings both the cars 3 and the Ybucks may be provided with meanstending to reduce tiltingto a minimum.

Each truck may have fixed thereon ahori-` zontally disposed plateV 17and adaptedV to bear Vupon each plate are apair of rollers 18 secured totheunderside of` a car. l/Vith the rollers so positioned two areuponfthe left hand side of a car vand two` upon the right hand side of acar. A car in shifting end for end as Yit. passes through a loop movescross-wise of the rails while the trucks retain their same relativeposition.V

In this position ,the rollers 18 bearing upon the plates 17 of thetrucks serve to maintain the body of a car in a non-tiltable position.As an additional preventive the bucks may'be provided with a guard rail19 for a loopv and a guard rail 2O for a main line opposite a loop. Theends of a car vpass under such guards during shifting. In or-V der toprovide clearance with respect to the bucks the ends of the car arerounded as illustrated. v

It will now be apparent that l have de vised a novel and usefulconstruction which embodies the features of advantage enumerated asdesirable in the statement of the invention and the above descriptionand while l have in ythe. present instance shown 1 and described thepreferred embodiment position. y

thereof whichhas been` found in practice Yto give satisfactory andreliable results, it isV to be understood that thesame is susceptible ofmodification in various particulars without departing from' the spiritor scope of.

the invention or sacrificing any of its advantages. lllhat vl claim is Yl. In an amusement apparatus, an incline provided with a single set oftraction rails,

loops arranged at intervals along the line of said rails, a car adaptedfor travelover said rails under the influence of gravity and truckshaving swiveled relation with saidVV car, one truck Vbeing lprovidedQwithV flanged ftrac'tionf wheels the '-iianges' of which are arrangedto track upon the insideedges of 'i `said rails Vand the other` truckbeing pro- Vvided with flanged traction wheels the flanges of whichare'arranged to track upon to the outer rail ofthe main lineV oppositeto the first mentioned guard to preclude tilting of said car'rduringshifting of its 3. Apparatus as described in claim 1 characterized bymeans arranged between a truck and said car to prevent tilting of saidycar Vduring shifting of its position.

4. In amusementapparatus, an incline provided with-a single set oftraction rails, loops arranged at intervals along the line of saidrails, a car adapted for travel overv said incline underthe influencesof gravity and trucks having swiveled relation with said car, one truckbeingvprovided with flanged .traction-wheels, the flangesV of which arearranged to first follow the 'main line of rails and then follow a loopand the other truck being provided'with flanged traction wheels, theflanges of which are'arranged to continue along said main line ofV railsand follow the next loop whereby said car upon reaching a loop is causedto ybe shifted end for end without'changing its originalcourse oftravel.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed myname. Y THOMAS D.HOO/PERpJR.

